Railroad rails.

[Pa Pa Jack]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

 

[lilranch2001]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

I am not an engineer, but I would venture a guess that not much in an 18 foot span of a bridge

 

[bcp]

First, rail comes in many sizes.

Rail& Crane Rail

Second, rail is pretty flexible compared to steel beams.

http://www.maritimejournal.com/__data/assets/image/0008/809927/London-Gateway-3.jpg

 

[ericher69]

Any of you engineering types know how much weight a 24 foot long railroad rail will support over a free span of about 18 feet? I was given three 24 foot long rails and would like to use them to build a bridge across a deep gully.

This may give you your answer

http://ijce.iust.ac.ir/files/site1/user_files_6k93w6/ijce-A-10-3-242-712841b.pdf

 

[lilranch2001]

When I had our rail spur rebuilt 5 years ago, they would move the removed rails with a backhoe by hanging it from the center of the rails, and if my memory serves me, the ends would droop about 18 inches from center hanging point.

Rails are not built to bridge distances, ties are only about a foot apart

 

[TCJatko]

I'm guessing they won't support much load. Of course, they would do much better if you could prevent lateral flexing by bracing, like bridging between floor joists.

 

[SPIKER]

Agreed with others here, Rails are not SPAN RATED they must be supported rather close spacing. They are also made from materials that are not real forgiving vs that of an I-Beam. They may make OK back stops and or fence post & gates but not for span of a bridge.

Look for semi trailers and even some older mobile homes have real good frames under them & make pretty good bridges for light equipment. I have a 12' span bridge built form a 60's mobile home frame. I pull 3 yard dump trailer full of wet gravel with my 5K lb tractor over it. Not much flexing or creaking from it but the treated SYP deck boards are getting bad. There are Teli Poles bolted to the out side edges which the 2x8 SYP boards are screwed down to.

Mark

 

[Pa Pa Jack]

Thanks for the responses. My back-up plan was to cut some of the huge cedars I have on my property. Some are over 30 feet tall. My concern is that they seem to rot quicker than I expected when I lay them down. Might be the wrong type of cedar.

 

[muddstopper]

Wish i had a dollar for evey boken rail I have changed. Rail hold lots of loads, but only if it is supported by ties with sufficient ballast substructure. No way i would think about spanning 18ft for a bridge. rail comes in many different sizes. Every rail i have ever seen will have the size, date of manufacture and type written on the web . Most mainline rail now is CWR, ( continuous welded rail) and will be 130 -132lb or above. some CWR is 100lb, some laid as ribbons (1320ftlenghts) and some flashbut welded in the field to make CWR.I have seen 75lb rail on gut lines and sideing, and ocassionally some 65lb in industry tracks but now days hardly ever see anything smaller than 85lb. To estimate the weight of a lenght of rail, look for the size printed on the web, which is the weight of a 3ft section of the rail. For examble, if your 24ft long piece of rail is 85lb you would divide the lenght by three and then multiply that number by 85, or 8x85=680lbs. If 132lb rail, then 8x132=1065lb. I have seen a lot of different sizes of rail so even if the numbers on your rail dont match anything i have suggested, the number you find will be the weight for that type of rail.

 

[duwem]

Sounds like your best bet is to take the rails in for scrap and buy some other materals.

Sometimes you can get electrical poles for free if the utility is replacing them. They of course have a limit too.